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Fat Smokers Save the NHS Money!

Thursday, 7th February 2008

This is something that I've been growling about (well, as much as my smoke cured lungs and weight induced asthma allow) for years. It simply isn't true to state that smokers cost the NHS money.

Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

The actual numbers are these:

Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on.The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000.

Now it is of course true that the cost of something to the NHS or not is not the only metric by which we should measure the desirability of something. We might want to point out to people that they'll, on average, lose some years of their life if they indulge in the baccy or the biscuits, for example. We might also want to deny certain medical treatments (yes, there really can be post-operative complications fo diabetics, porkers and smokers which mean that the risks of an operation can be greater than the risks of no operation) to some.

But the one thing we can't go around saying is that eiher smoking or over-eating cost the NHS money: it simply ain't true.

Of course, add in the pensions saved from those who die younger, the extra taxes they'll have paid and the Treasury makes a fortune off these groups. But then that knowledge has been around for a long time: Kip Viscusi has been saying it for at least a decade but no one seems to have been listening. Much too much fiun to tell other people how to live their lives, isn't it?